A Lost Future
Reflections on 1 Kings 3:7-15, 11:1-6

Dennis Bratcher

Introduction

Gary slumped into the chair in the corner of my office. "Prof, I won’t be
back next semester." Gary was a ministerial student. He had come to college
excited about his call to serve God in the ministry. He was bright,
committed, and worked hard to learn.

Gary thought "traditional" churches were too dull and started looking for
an "exciting" church. He became good friends with two young men who were
involved with a fringe religious movement. Soon, Gary’s behavior was erratic
and hostile. His new friends had persuaded him that theirs was the only true
way to God. We began to hear strange reports of all-night exorcisms of
demons, unusual religious services led by Gary, and verbal attacks against
students who disagreed with him.

Gary was zealous in his new found religion. But he talked less and less
about the ministry. His dabbling with the dramatic, extreme, and shallow
aspects of religion had dulled his awareness of the deeper aspects of
devotion to God. So he gave up his dream and his call to serve God and His
people. He had wasted his potential for
leadership in the church by serving somebody else’s distorted idea of God.
The Bible calls this idolatry.

God gave Solomon the ability to be one of Israel’s best kings. Yet, he
squandered his potential by allowing alien ideas about God to dull his
commitment to the living God of Israel.

The Text

1. Solomon’s Prayer for a
Listening Heart (3:7-9)

7 And now, O LORD my God, you have
made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a
little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is
in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, that
cannot be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 Give your servant therefore
an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good
and evil; for who is able to govern this your great people?"

The story of Solomon is an introduction to the sad saga of Israel’s
kings. These stories about Solomon in the first eleven chapters of Kings
serve two purposes. While they inform us about the reign of Solomon, they
are more than just history. The Scripture writers use the life of Solomon to
teach us something about commitment to God.

Solomon was Israel’s first king from the lineage of David and would be
the last king to rule over the unified Israelite people. During the reign of
his son Rehoboam, internal conflict would tear the nation apart. The
Scripture writers place the blame for the division largely on Solomon and
his failure to devote himself fully to God (11:11-13).

The dream recorded here occurred early in Solomon’s reign (v. 5). In
Solomon’s day kingship in the Eastern world meant absolute power, wealth,
and usually oppression and cruelty (note the warnings in 1 Sam 8:11-18).
Even David, Solomon’s father, had abused his kingly power for selfish ends
(2 Sam 11). In this story, Solomon chose a different style of kingship. He
rejected the pursuit of power and chose instead to govern with the spirit of
a servant ("your servant" occurs three times in these verses). David became
the model for Israel’s ideal king, and later for the Messiah. Yet when
Isaiah later spoke of the righteous King who would come, he used images here
associated with Solomon (Isa 11:1-5).

This story remembers Solomon as a humble man who realized that he was not
adequate for the task of leadership. He did not desire power and control,
but the ability to care for God’s people wisely. So he prayed for
discernment, in Hebrew "a listening heart."

Solomon showed his humility and a strong sense of community by counting
himself as one of the people (v.8). The story also reflects a deep sense of
God’s grace at work in the community (v.6). The people were God’s people and
Solomon was God’s leader. Yet the authority was not Solomon, but God.

These verses are as much a judgment on power as they are the story of an
Israelite king. A few years ago I took a sales training course for a new
job. Most of the training involved techniques to intimidate people, to
manage any meeting with another person. Nothing could be more alien to
the biblical views on relationships in community! What might our federal
government, our state legislatures, our churches, even our families, be like
if both leaders and people would choose "a listening heart" instead of
control and intimidation?

2. God’s Gift of a Wise Heart
(3:10-15)

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon
had asked this. 11 And God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and
have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies,
but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12
behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and
discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you
shall arise after you.

13 I give you also what you have not
asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with
you, all your days. 14 And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my
statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will
lengthen your days." 15 And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream.
Then he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the
LORD, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast
for all his servants.

God responded to Solomon’s expression of humility by giving him the
wisdom necessary to govern the people. In biblical tradition, wisdom and
discernment were always gifts from God, not human achievements. Scripture
consistently views any human ability or accomplishment in relation to God.
No aspect of human existence falls outside God’s domain. In biblical
thinking there is no such being as a "self-made man" or woman.

The story tells us that Solomon understood this well. God gave Solomon
what he had not asked, expressed both in material and non-material terms
(riches and honor). We should not try to ignore the fact that Scripture
often equates blessing with material belongings. In our Western,
success-driven culture we should not make too much of it either. The point
is that everything comes from God. Any security, any benefit, any happiness,
life itself, is a gift from God.

Some use this passage to teach a "gospel" of prosperity and success.
Contrary to many modern voices speaking in the name of God, the Bible does
not call us to succeed, to be prosperous, or to be wealthy. God, through
Scripture, calls us to choose responsibly before God. He calls us to live a
lifestyle of integrity and commitment to God. He calls us to serve Him,
first and only.

That is why "the Lord was pleased" with Solomon’s choice (v. 10). It
showed a proper ordering of priorities. Success, wealth, or prosperity may
come. But it can never be the goal; it must always be secondary. Giving us
wealth is not a duty God must fulfill or a divine right we can demand. It is
always an unexpected gift from God. Paul understood this when he wrote from
a Roman prison: " I have learned, in whatever circumstances I am, to be
content. I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance
and want." (Phil 4:11-12).

Nearly a third of the Sermon on the Mount addresses the issue of proper
priorities. Jesus cautioned about too much concern with seeking wealth,
security, and power. His call was clear: "Seek first His Kingdom and His
righteousness." Then he added: "And all these things shall be yours as
well." (Matthew 7:33). This is not a promise that everyone will be wealthy
or automatically happy if they chose wisdom over power, God over "mammon."
This is just a statement of fact rooted deeply in biblical faith: "these
things" are always gifts from God. And they must always be secondary.

It is all too easy for us to take our own selfish desires and then
interpret the Scripture as if God wants us to satisfy those desires in His
name. Sorting out the difference between doing what pleases us and doing
what pleases God is not always easy. Sometimes it is costly. But we must do
it.

3. The Tragedy of a Divided
Heart (1 Kings 11:1-6)

1 Now King Solomon loved many
foreign women: the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite,
Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the LORD
had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with
them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart
after their gods"; Solomon clung to these in love.

3 He had seven hundred wives,
princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his
heart. 4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after
other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was
the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the
goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the
Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD,
and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done

Solomon ruled his kingdom well. As his fame spread, the royal court
attracted visitors from all over the world. He united the land conquered by
David and forged an empire. He built great fortresses, palaces, and a
magnificent temple for God. By examining the ruins of his cities and
strongholds, scholars have confirmed his massive building projects and have
lent support to the biblical stories of his fabulous wealth.

Solomon needed to secure the borders of his empire and avoid costly
foreign wars. So he made alliances and signed treaties with rulers of the
surrounding peoples. In the ancient world, marriage often sealed political
and military agreements between kingdoms (3:1). Also, lesser rulers often
gave their daughters in marriage to a powerful king as tribute, a sign of
loyalty to his empire. So as Solomon’s power grew, so did the number of his
wives and concubines.

Here we need to be careful that our modern cultural ideas do not cause us
to misread the story. Solomon’s failure was not in having more than one wife
or too many wives. The Israelite law codes (the Torah), as well as the
culture of the day, allowed more than one wife. Eastern culture expected a
king to have a large harem. His vigor proved his ability to rule and to have
sons to succeed him (note 2 Sam 16:20-22). The problem here is not sexual.
It is a much deeper problem of commitment.

Solomon’s failure came by tolerating, even encouraging, idolatry. His
foreign wives brought with them their own gods to worship. Solomon not only
allowed the worship of these foreign gods, he built temples for them
(11:7-8). The text does not say so directly, but the implication is that
Solomon wanted to keep the wives happy. This would assure continued peace in
the empire.

The more Solomon dabbled with alien ideas of God, the less devoted he
became to Yahweh, the God of Israel. His zeal for God, so strong early in
his reign, faded. Solomon’s commitment became shallow ("not fully devoted")
because other ties and conflicting ideas had divided his loyalty. He loved
God (3:3) but he also loved many women who did not share his love of God
(11:1). Finally, Solomon mishandled God’s gifts.

Few of us will ever face the problem of idolatry in the same way Solomon
did. For us, however, the danger is as real. Our idols are not foreign gods
of wood and stone. Our idols are idols of the mind. These are ideas,
ideologies, systems of power, cultural influences, even ideas about God,
that are completely at odds with faith in the living God of the Bible.

Idolatry may be expressed in different ways in different cultures,
different cities, or different churches. Remember Gary, the young student I
mentioned earlier? Idolatry for him was allowing someone else’s idea of God
to pervert the love and fellowship that is the heart of Christianity.
Religion itself can become idolatrous if it allows a perversion of total
devotion to God. Distorted religion can rot the fruit of the Spirit as
quickly as outright sin can!

Conclusion

Jim was a retired dock worker. He had worked most of his life in an
environment where ethnic background, religion, and race divided people into
closed groups. This provided others with fuel for insults and jokes. Since
he was among the majority group, he was usually on the giving end of the
insults.

Jim was a decent man who attended church faithfully. Yet, he
struggled spiritually. Jim enjoyed telling demeaning jokes about people
whose skin was a different color than his. He could not see a black man or a Hispanic without
making some negative comment. This attitude spilled over into his attitude
toward Catholics, Baptists, lawyers, salesmen, anyone not just like him. If
you listened very long to Jim, you got the impression that there were very few
people he liked. He had allowed a set of ideas, adopted from the culture
around him, to become idolatrous. Idols, even idols of the mind, lead
to ungodly actions.

We would like Solomon’s story better if it had ended before chapter
eleven. We would have a pleasant, positive narrative with a fairy-tale like
ending. But the Bible is not a fairy tale whose endings are always perfect.
It deals with real people living in a real world; few of us live fairy-tale
lives.

The Bible does not gloss over the failures of its heroes and make them
super-saints. Personally, I need that kind of honesty. I will never be a
super-saint. I would likely get discouraged if I thought I had to be one. Or
at least I would no doubt become a pain to live with if I tried to be one!

It is exciting to me to realize that the greatest men and women of the
Bible were just ordinary people like you and me. Yet God could use them.
That does not mean that we must fail, or that we should glory in our
failures, or that we should excuse them and pretend that they are really
successes.

It does mean that failure does not always destroy us, or stop
God’s working in the world. If God could work in the world through a coward
like Gideon, a vengeful prophet like Jonah, a murderer like David, a fanatic
like Paul -or an idolater like Solomon- maybe, in some way, he can use me!

O Lord, give me a listening heart. From the
strength of your presence, help me surrender any idols I harbor in the
corners of my mind that might turn my heart away from you. By your grace,
help me devote my heart to you totally.

Questions for discussion

1. While we are used to hearing of the abuse of power by government
officials or executives, what are some examples of abuse of power on the
ordinary levels of life where most of us live? at work? at home? at
church? among our friends? our family?

2. How do we go about sorting out the difference between doing what
pleases us and doing what pleases God? Can they ever be the same thing?
Why or why not? What are some specific examples from our modern life?

3. What are some other examples of "idols of the mind" that might
threaten our Christian commitment today?

4. What is our responsibility for the stability and vitality of our
community of faith?

5. What is the balance between using our own wisdom (common sense) and
yet understanding that wisdom comes from God? How do we receive God’s gift
of wisdom?

6. In what ways can "religion" itself become idolatrous?

7. What is the biblical perspective on prosperity? What
cultural, historical, and geographical factors must be considered in
understanding this? How do these perspectives compare with how we
experience life today? (We need to think here beyond the United States to
the situation of Christians in Haiti, China, or central Africa.) Does
obedience to God always guarantee even basic food and
shelter?